In order to carry through to completion the destruction of these pacifist illusions, it would be necessary, in my opinion, to speak not only of war in general, but also of the specifically imperialist character of both the war of 1914-1918 and the war now being prepared between America and Japan, with the probable participation of England and France.

There is no doubt that only the proletarian revolution can put an end to, and will certainly put an end to, all wars in general. But it would be a pacifist illusion to think that a victorious proletarian revolution in one country, say in France, will immediately and surely destroy all wars.

The experience of Russia has graphically refuted this illusion. That experience has shown that only through revolution could one exit the imperialist war, and that the Russian workers and peasants have gained immeasurably from their revolution, despite the civil war imposed upon them by capitalists of all countries. Inasmuch as reactionary wars are criminal and destructive, and in particular imperialist wars (to which the war of 1914-1918 belongs, from the side of France as well;
276
V. I. LENIN
the Versailles Peace has shown this most graphically), to precisely that extent are revolutionary wars lawful and just—that is, wars in defense of the oppressed classes against capitalists, in defense of oppressed peoples of a small handful of nations against oppressors, in defense of the socialist revolution from foreign invasions. The more clearly the masses of workers and peasants of France understand this, the less probable and the shorter in duration will be the inevitable attempts of French, English, and other capitalists to suppress by war the revolution of the workers and peasants of France. In contemporary Europe, after the victory of Soviet Russia over all capitalist countries that supported Denikin, Kolchak, Wrangel, Yudenich, and Pilsudski—in contemporary Europe, amid the immeasurable and shameless strangulation of Germany by the Versailles Peace, the civil war of French capitalists against a victorious socialist revolution in France can only be very brief in duration and a thousand times easier for the French workers and peasants than it was for the Russians. But it is absolutely necessary to make a clear distinction between imperialist wars—wars for the division of capitalist plunder, wars for the strangulation of small and weak nations—and revolutionary wars, wars for defense against counter-revolutionary capitalists, for the overthrow of their yoke.

On the basis of the considerations set forth, I would consider it more correct, instead of what is said in the theses on the question of "war or revolution," to say approximately the following:

The events of recent years have exposed all the falsehood, all the deception of pacifist and Wilsonian ideology. This falsehood must be finally destroyed. The war of 1914-1918 was imperialist, predatory, reactionary not only on the side of Germany, but also on the side of France; the Versailles Peace, even more beastly and base than the Peace of Brest-Litovsk, has shown this particularly graphically. The new war being prepared between America and Japan (or England), which is inevitable under conditions of the preservation of capitalism, will inevitably draw in

277